The bill concerns: "Requesting the speaker and lieutenant governor to create a joint interim committee to study seawater desalination on the Texas coast."

Hunter is joined by state Reps. Abel Herrero, D-Robstown, and J.M. Lozano, R-Kingsville, also coastal representatives.

Hunter said the bill is being modified to include inland sources — such as West Texas brackish water. "For many years I've heard about desalination," Hunter said. "I haven't seen any action, so I decided to file the joint House-Senate committee resolution that for the next year and a half will allow the issue of desalination to be discussed analyzed and qualified.

"One of the ideas is, is it economical, is it not? So our thought is, let's have a joint committee. Let's analyze it, and if it's there, then two years you'll have a program. If it's not, we tried and we looked at it."

Granted, Texas has been working on desalination for a while, said Jorge Arroyo, the Texas Water Development Board Director of Innovative Water Technologies.

Texas has 45 desalination projects throughout the state, he said. "It is a source with an incredible potential of water supply for Texas," Arroyo said.

The state has about 2.7 billion acre-feet of brackish groundwater that could be tapped, he said. One acre-foot of water is about 326,000 gallons of water. The location of the brackish water is diffuse.

In San Angelo, a study begun in 2006 looked at the Whitehorse Aquifer nearby as a potential water source, but there wasn't enough brackish groundwater to support a project, Arroyo said.

State Rep. Drew Darby, R-San Angelo, said desalination is nevertheless a worthy subject of study.

"Absolutely we should look at desalination," Darby said. In some respects, however, "it has not made economic sense," he said.

Brackish water desalination does have a number of challenges, Arroyo said.

General education about desalination is one issue, educating about how much it costs and how it operates. He said the technology isn't as much as an innovative solution as it may seem. It is, however, labeled as an innovative water technology by the water development board.

The disposal of waste — the concentrated solution that results from desalination — is another concern, as is the cost of desalinating, although it has gone down over the years, Arroyo said. Another challenge is a lack of funding for water projects in general, although a potential $2 billion from lawmakers this session might help.

Lastly, a lack of data about how much and where exactly to find the best brackish water poses a concern.

As for the cost, Darby said in the future it may not be much of an issue.

"I think eventually water is going to be more valuable than oil," he said.

Matthew Waller covers the Legislature for Scripps Texas Newspapers and works in Austin. Contact him at mwaller@gosanangelo.com or via Twitter @waller_matthew.